There are 3, actually 4, more trips for me coming up before the end of the year. The upcoming one next week will be Santa Fe, the longest one will be Vietnam, the one I’m most excited about is Hawaii and then there’s that little jaunt to Las Vegas just because.
Santa Fe is, for the most part, taken care of now. All that’s left for me to is MAINTAIN a grip on reality when it comes to shopping. Of course, that won’t be easy, considering it’s Indian Market and I have a passion for Native American Indian jewelry. I’m already thinking about the selection of leather belts (bison, ostrich, alligator, etc.) at Tom Taylor, along with the unbelievably gorgeous silver and turquoise belt buckles and tips that can be bought around town for the price of 1 or 2 paychecks. Then there are the inlaid wine openers (another of my collectibles) at Cutlery of Santa Fe. That’s before I even take a gander at any of the jewelry! Restaurants are reasonably priced. What worries me is that, with an additional 50,000 to 150,000 people in town for Indian Market, there may be a long wait to get in anywhere. I also wonder about the evening temperatures, especially for the opera. The temperatures are purported to be near 90 during the day, but supposedly drop to the 50’s in the evenings. If it drops to around 54, it shouldn’t bother me too much as that’s the average temperature in the morning when I’m en route to work in San Francisco. However, I’ve read that some people take blankets when they attend the opera. That had me wondering if there will be wind or a breeze at all. Santa Fe is at the foot of some mountains, so I’m not sure what to expect in the area where the opera is held.
I was holding off on buying intercity flights in Vietnam because a friend had said that it’s much cheaper to buy intercity flights once you’re actually IN Vietnam, as opposed to buying them in advance. Being a creature of habit, it’s not like me to wait until the last minute for much of anything, though. Yesterday I bought my roundtrip tickets between Hanoi and Da Nang; they weren’t terribly expensive. At least, now I know exact arrival and departure times to tell the hotels and ask them to send a driver for me. There seem to be horror stories about taxi drivers in Vietnam trying to rip people off by taking them to different hotels than requested, ones where they get commission. Since it will be my first trip there and I obviously don’t speak the language, I just don’t want to have to deal with those type of things immediately upon landing. Now I have to contact the hotels to see if they can set up one day trips (NOT overnight) to both Halong Bay and Mai Chau. I contacted another company in regards to taking an all day motorcycle tour around the countryside of Hoi An. They said it was possible to book a date now, as well as to pay in advance, if that was my preference. Beings I’m also still worried that it might be flooding season in Hoi An, I don’t want to lock myself into anything just yet. They assured me that it would take nothing less than a typhoon for them to cancel one of their tours, but I’ll take my chances!
In Hawaii, there’s nothing really to plan. My big idea is to get to Waimea Beach Park merely to take pictures of people jumping off of that awesome huge rock! It wouldn’t kill me to do a little sunbathing there, either! The rest of my time will be spent eating (mainly loco moco), seeing friends and relatives, a little shopping and soaking up more sun. I DO have a request or two from friends in the shopping area. Someone wants a silver turtle with plumeria pendant, much like one of my own. They saw it and mentioned that they were considering getting a tattoo soon of just that – a turtle with a plumeria. Now they want the pendant, too!
As with Hawaii, there’s not lots of planning for Las Vegas. It’s a 24-Hour town, so something is always open, be it restaurants, bars, clubs or stores. If I do nothing more than eat another to-die-for filet mignon at Mon Ami Gabi, that’s enough to keep me happy for the entire trip!